"Gone Girl" Has a New Ending: What Did They Change?

Usually, when Hollywood decides to change the ending of a bestselling novel for the benefit of its film adaptation, the news is met with outrage among its most loyal fans. But in the case of Gillian Flynn's addictive marital-dysfunction mystery Gone Girl, which David Fincher is currently translating for the screen, the news that Flynn has come up with an entirely new third act for the film-starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike-is cause for celebration.

[Spoilers ahead, obviously.]

If there was one common complaint among readers of the criminal-thriller, it was that the story pretty much collapsed after Flynn's tense pacing and surprising reveals reached an awesome midpoint crescendo. Told through the dual, unreliable perspectives of husband (Nick) and wife (Amy), the story chronicles the disappearance of Amy on the couple's fifth wedding anniversary, shortly after the couple uprooted themselves from New York to the Midwest.

Through diary entries shown in the first half of the book, Amy, a petite blonde, positions herself as a loving, devoted, and harmless wife who forfeited her life's savings for her husband's dream of owning a bar. However, it is slowly and brilliantly revealed that Amy is not who she seems-neither is Nick for that matter-and that she has masterminded her own disappearance and the elaborate framing of her husband. The thrill, for this blogger at least, came with the midpoint realization that the perceived victim was actually a wife so pathologically vindictive that she is willing to slash her wrists to leave incriminating D.N.A. evidence at the crime scene.

Understandably, Flynn and Fincher do not reveal much about the new conclusion in Entertainment Weekly's cover story. Their most telling revelation is simply how much the film's ending will differentiate from the book. "Ben [Affleck] was so shocked by it," Flynn tells the magazine. "He would say, 'This is a whole new third act! She literally threw that third act out and started from scratch.'"

In celebration of the news, we've brainstormed some of the changes we hope that Flynn has made to her original Gone Girl conclusion:

See more:Kate Middleton's Hair in Review - Less time (or even better, no time) at the motel. While her husband is being investigated for her disappearance, Amy is hiding out in a seedy hotel where very little happens aside from her being swindled out of her remaining cash by her neighbors. While we understand that hiding out in a remote locale is key for Amy's revenge strategy, can we give Amy a more captivating hideaway backdrop and more intriguing outlaws to keep her company?

- More character upkeep. In the first half of the book, Amy is a master conniver who has thought out every last detail about her disappearance. Once she is at the motel, however, she falters with some human but not very Amy-seeming errors. We would've liked to have been surprised during this phase of the story by something other than Amy's sudden incompetence.

- Darkly comedic scenarios for Desi Collings. We initially hoped that Gillian Flynn ran all of the Desi Collings passages of her book through the shredder. Upon being reminded that Neil Patrick Harris is playing the character in the film, however, we hope that Flynn has found a way to ramp up the scenes involving Amy's ex-boyfriend, tailoring them to suit Harris's comedic strengths.

- A more climactic homecoming. After so much deceitful groundwork laid, Amy-the woman who had the courage to stage her own murder-ends up slinking back to Nick. Sure, she has a plan to account for her story. But it is weak and feels as though Amy is returning with her tail between her legs when the old Amy would have never resorted to such weak gamesmanship. We like the idea of Amy and Nick facing off again, but not under these lame faux circumstances. - Amy and Nick absolutely cannot end up together, unless it is in a couple's grave six-feet-under. Amy is a sociopath. Nick is a philandering husband who has been outwitted by his wife. Under no circumstances, even those involving a random pregnancy, should the duo end up together, unless Fincher & Co. wants audience members to burn down the multiplexes. Knowing the hell that Amy put Nick through, we would be content with Nick using the third act to completely turn the tables on Amy, outmaneuvering her in her own sick game, and ultimately escorting her to the real version of the demise she staged so believably in the first act.